Although, as a humanist, I find the concept of faith, belief despite lack or contradictory evidence, something I have chosen to reject. 

But I find the human capacity for faith truly fascinating.

To have an open mind, one should experience the widest possible range of experiences in faith practice.

I have gone to many churches on a great many occasions in an attempt to learn and understand the allure and social importance of these cultural institutions.

I have pride in my nature for curiosity. It has so often been disheartening therefore to hear the nature of free questioning lambasted and vilified from the pulpit.

Where questions have been encouraged, this has only been done in strict adherence to religious text, with the solutions pre-supplied by the “elders” of a congregation.

The nature of my humanist viewpoint insists on a true freedom of inquiry, and beyond any single book or venerated orator. I have therefore always found the teachings of founded traditional religious events vastly unsatisfying.

Additionally, I have often, with tremendous discomfort, found discriminatory teachings on matters of sexual practice, and other far more petty aspects of life, justified only by a subjective interpretation of ancient foreign texts.

This anachronistic outlook served only to reinforce my own position that we must look farther and wider for any guiding wisdom in life, and that in each case we cannot accept any singular “gospel”, but rather examine a cosmos of information to find the best in the understanding a human mind is capable and freely allowed.